to sum it up... go to SANE Website first and check wether the scanner is listed there or not (not only the manufacturer). Then check wether it needs a "closed" linux library only available for x86. I had a thread, I think on AW.net about my HP All-In-One Laserjet, which needed a one of those libs, therefor the backend couldn't compile on PPC Linux, and could never be ported to AmigaOS/Cygn as well. Therefor you will probably be better of, not to use a "new" scanner.
Nevertheless, there are some workarounds:
- scanners can scan to FTP (either local or on the net)
- cheaper scanners/All-In-One Inkjet based have a webinterface (HP is well known for that, and works on OWB)
- scanners can scan to USB/Card... which can be seen on WB as massstorage/drive
- scanners can scan to SAMBA Share
- scanners can scan to email
I have (LAN) Xerox 6180MFP, which scans via FTP to a NAS (actually a HD sitting on my FritzBox Router) or scans to Amiga SAMBA Share. The samba share is monitored by "dirnotify", which calls a paintproggy once the file arrived in SAMBA Share
. On the scanner you could:
choose which ftpserver/SAMBA Share/email
choose resolution
choose fileformat (jpg,pdf,tiff - sadly no bmp or iff)
choose different other settings...